Prepaid SIM for Italy...
 

Hi guys, I know this these questions have been asked before, so I'm sorry in advance if what I'm asking seems stupid, but I can't seem to find out, and am hoping that some of you can help me. Here is the situation:

My boss is traveling from here (NYC) to Italy for a month. He is currently with Verizon (CDMA) so I got him an unlocked GSM phone (Treo), so he needs both Voice and Data. I gave him the phone the other day and tried to explain that he can just go to Wind or Vodafone and buy a SIM, but he wants one now, before he leaves so he doesn't have to do anything but turn the phone on when he gets there. Now, I know the best thing for him to do is to just get one himself. However, he's my boss and he's not really responding too well to the whole "get it yourself" solution I have for him.

He says he doesn't care if it costs more to do it from here, he just wants it done. So what are. if any, the options to get a prepaid SIM for voice and data on one of the Italian networks registered here? Please let me know what you guys think. Thanks!

For $39 you could buy a TIM card in the US through Telestial. http://www.telestial.com/view_produc...T_ID=LSIM-IT01

However, on there it says it doesn't do data... but I think it does. Maybe someone else could advise more.

By the way I think if you were to buy the same card in Italy it would only be €10.

Try Italian eBay, where you'll find dozens of prepaid SIMs (e.g. http://cgi.ebay.it/SIM-WIND-12-SPECI...QQcmdZViewItem). Afaik WIND has the most attractive data options for prepaid customers and with the "Call your Country" option your boss can call home for € 0,35/min.

Thank you for the quick replies. I've called Telestial and asked them; they do not support Data plans, so that option is out, though would have be a great option otherwise. I've tried Italian eBay, but can't really understand what they're describing the plans to be. Is it at all possible, once I have a SIM card, regardless of data plan, to add one through the website? I've heard of people doing this via Mondowind, or rather 155. Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

Tell you boss that you have to go to Italy to get the SIM. Two or three weeks in the city of your choice should be adequate. :)

You just need to get a SIM, all the options can be activated through the WIND website after you've requested and received a SMS with the login details.
WIND has dozens of options for prepaid customers, but as I mentioned before "Call your Country" would surely be the best voice option for your boss, as he can call home cheap and regarding data WIND offers two interesting options called "MEGA 15000" (5 GB traffic for € 30/month) "MEGA NO LIMIT" (2.5 GB for € 20/month).

I can't understand why Telestial say TIM does not support data. http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/italia/tim.html states that they support GPRS/EDGE/UMTS. Are they still selling some old SIMs that don't? In any case, WIND is definately the more economical option, but does this matter that much as he is your boss (and putting this down as an expense anyhow). I would cross check with Telestial exActly which TIM prepaid tariff they are putting you on.

All Italian sim-cards support data except UnoMobile (a new MVNO). Simply at Telestial they are American and have no idea how prepaid service works here in Italy (and in most of Europe). There's no data-plan, there's just the prepaid sim-card and you can choose any voice plan you prefer and add any data option which you want. Of course you pay to do almost all operation.

Personally I don't suggest to buy a Wind card on eBay while you can get one here for 10€ and activate "Call your country" for free...

Yes... I suspected that. In that case it is good news. If your boss really needs one before he goes (and obviously doesn't seem to care too much about the cost), just buy that one from Telestial for peace of mind!

Thanks for the information. So I can just get any TIM or WIND card there and add data later? How do you do that? It's been a while since the FAQs were updated.

I read through the various offers, and I'm interested in the following prepaid data option from TIM:

- Maxxi TIM Web Facile: 500 MB/month of data (apn ibox.tim.it) for € 20.00/month.

Do I purchase this at any TIM store or kiosk and then add it to my existing prepaid SIM? Since I'm assuming the instructions are in Italian, how do I go about activating it?

Thanks.